Why You Should Enter the Braun Book Awards
by Marina Reis
Well, it’s that time again: the Braun Book Awards season! Every year, Word Alive Press holds our Braun Book Awards for excellence in writing. This year’s BBA opened on December 15 and runs until March 15 at midnight CST. As always, there will be two winning manuscripts: one non-fiction winner and one fiction winner will win a traditional publishing contract, which includes, among other things, free publishing, free editing, and marketing tools to jumpstart your book promotion! Every manuscript submitted to the BBA goes through a vigorous judging process with several different rounds and readers. The 2026 BBA winners will be announced in late May or early June.
So, should you submit that manuscript you have been working on? Yes! This is an open call for Canadian Christian writers. Your manuscript does not have to be perfect. You do not have to be an accomplished writer. Your writing does not have to be perfect! In case you are still hesitating, I have compiled some very good reasons why you should enter the Braun Book Awards before the March 15 deadline.
Prove to yourself that you can do it
“It” being sharing your writing with the world. I understand that sharing your writing can be intimidating. Questions may arise like, Will people like it? Is it good enough? Am I good enough? I am going to guess that the answer to all three of these doubts is “yes.” But even if you feel the responses leaning more towards “no”, as you will go on to see, you don’t have much to lose. Imagine if your favourite author never took a chance on their book? If they waited for their writing to be perfect or for their self-confidence to be in the right place, the world may have never gotten their book.
Share your expertise, your experience, your talent
Expertise is needed now more than ever, so please share yours with the world. Some of you may have a thirty-year pastoring career under your belt. Some of you may have a lifetime’s worth of experience dealing with a chronic health issue and may have spoken to every specialist and read every book on the matter. Or maybe you simply want to share your experience with heartbreak in a well-executed Christian analogy. Your experience and how you interpret it is unique to you, but the feelings you have about it are probably universal, and you never know who you are helping and validating by sharing your expertise, your experience, and your talent.
Free editorial assessment and sample editing quote
Yes! You read that right: every single manuscript submitted to the Braun Book Awards gets free feedback from one of our professional editors. Tell me where else you can find that! A free editorial assessment will include big-picture feedback on your writing and manuscript quality, while the sample editing quote will show you an example of the kinds of changes and revisions that a professional editor may recommend for you. This feedback is invaluable and can be used to polish up your manuscript for next year’s resubmission, if you are not our winner.
Even if you don't win, long-and short-listed writers get publishing prizes
Editing discounts. Publishing discounts. Maybe even a feature blog. Runner-ups are given incentives to publish in the form of publishing credits. Competition can be tough, and although there can only be one non-fiction and one fiction winner every year, we still want to reward good writing.
A way to contribute to the spirit of Canadian Christian writing
It is time to support our own. Working in this industry can sometimes make it feel like Canadian Christian talent is dwindling…and then that one manuscript is submitted, and my faith in this small pocket of the industry is restored. I believe that for every one great manuscript that is submitted to the BBA, there is another just as great manuscript that remains unsubmitted, saved on an old laptop somewhere. Let your manuscript see the light of day. I promise that submitting your manuscript to the Braun Book Awards will be worth the risk!
For more information on the Braun Book Awards, please follow the links:
Additional details
Download the Submission Guidelines
The Entry Form
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Did you enjoy this post? Read more by Marina Reis, here.
About this Contributor:
Marina Reis is a Senior Project Manager who joined Word Alive Press in 2017. She graduated from the University of Winnipeg in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in English.